


If Today Was Your Last Day, Tomorrow Was Too Late

by CaptainIronAvenger1996



Series: Savin' Me [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV), The Walking Dead - All Media Types
Genre: Bottom Rick, Daryl is really cheesy, Don't wear white in the apocolypse, Everyone Is Alive, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, I'm pretty sure no one is gonna die, M/M, Surprise couples to come, There are other couples, This is kinda how I think Rick would do things if he knew what was to come, Time Travel, Top Daryl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-09 03:11:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4331550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainIronAvenger1996/pseuds/CaptainIronAvenger1996
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rick Grimes pulled the trigger he expected that to be the end. Instead he woke up to find himself staring at a familiar ceiling. How did he get back here? If that had been a coma dream, then why was it that everyone was there? No matter what the reason was, he was going to make sure that nothing happened to these people. They would reach the prison, they would keep it. Nothing was going to take it from them this time. Of that Rick was positive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And So It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fix it but I just wanted to try it. I'm not sure where this is going to go so bear with me on this roller coaster ride!! Daryl is the top in this fic because I love top Daryl and there isn't enough of it in this world. There will be a surprise pairing or two that I couldn't resist putting in.

Rick didn't know how long it had been since the world had gone to shit, they'd lost the man with the pocket watch so long ago. His wife had followed. One by one their group had dwindled down to just Rick. Sasha had been the only other one with him and he'd buried a knife in her skull a week ago. At least...he thought it was a week ago. Time had lost all meaning for Rick after he'd lost his son and his daughter and his lover. Daryl's death had been the hardest for Rick to come to terms with, not because he had been his lover for years but because Daryl was his conscious in these dark days. Carl had grown away from Rick as he'd grown. He was so angry, angry at Rick, angry at the world, angry at who'd they'd lost, angry always angry. Judith had only lived a few years but she'd been their light in the darkness and when that light had been snuffed out darkness took over, there to stay. Everyone else just went into survival mode much like Rick did because it was all they could do; survive. But not Daryl. Daryl had been the humanity in the group. He'd never preached like Dale, bless the old man's soul, had because words were never Daryl's biggest strength but his heart was. Carl had grown angry at Daryl, called him weak and naive, questioned how a man like Daryl could go soft in such a time. Daryl had given him a sad look and simply told him that surviving was pointless if you were the only one left. Boy was his lover right. 

 

Shane. 

 

Lori. 

 

T-Dog. 

 

Dale. 

 

Amy. 

 

Andrea. 

 

Jim. 

 

Carol. 

 

Sophia. 

 

Hershel. 

 

Beth. 

 

Maggie. 

 

Glenn. 

 

Tyreese. 

 

Sasha. 

 

Bob. 

 

Michonne. 

 

Judith. 

 

Carl. 

 

Merle. 

 

Tara. 

 

Abraham. 

 

Jacqui. 

 

Rosita. 

 

Duane. 

 

Eugene.

 

Morgan. 

 

Daryl... 

 

  
All of them were dead and gone while Rick was stuck. Stuck in a world where the dead were his only company. But even that was beginning to stop now. Considering how many Walkers he'd come across as compared to how many humans? Well he doubted many people were left alive at this point. And the Walkers couldn't live forever, with food running out and their already dead bodies decomposing even more, they were bound to disappear eventually. It was just a matter of waiting for it to happen. After Alexandria had fallen to the Walkers everyone who had survived had been left to fend for themselves, they'd been split up much like they had after the fall of the prison but this time not everyone had been able to meet up with each other again. Some of them had just never been found. The group that did manage to meet up was small and broken. 

If Rick had been capable of a sound he would have laughed at the thought, all of this was just a waiting game, but his throat hadn't been used in weeks. Sasha had been much like him in the end, cold and survival oriented, they didn't use words with each other. He had missed the sound of human voices, couldn't really remember the sound of anyone's, not even his own. His companion had always said that she did the math in every situation so she could come out on top, but somehow Rick had the feeling she had stopped doing the math after her brother had been permanently subtracted from the equation. He didn't think she'd ever thought of having to do such math, thought Tyreese would always be by her side much like he had thought so with Daryl. 

 

 

 

Daryl had been his companion since the prison, after Lori had died Rick had been lost for a long time, had lost contact with everyone, his daughter and his son. But Daryl had come through and stood by his side even when Rick didn't know it. So many things had gone wrong for them, but oh so many had gone right. Rick could still remember the first time he had told Daryl he'd loved him, surprisingly it was in response to Daryl saying he loved Rick. People thought that Rick had been the one to initiate their coupling but everything had been Daryl's doing. 

 

Daryl had courted him in every sense of the word, had been nothing but proper with Rick. From walking him to the guard tower for shifts, lending him his poncho when he got cold, to leaving small trinkets that he'd found on runs that he picked up for Rick. One of his favorite things had been a tiny snowglobe that Daryl had found at a department store all those years ago when he'd first decided to go after Rick. It had been cold and snowing in Georgia, the prison's stone walls amplifying the cold, everyone had been bundled together except for Rick who had been outside tending to the animals and trying to give them some place warmer to get to  
when an arm had wrapped around his waist and pulled him into that broad chest he was starting to love. 

 

His hunter had whispered in his ear, asked him what he was doing outside without proper clothing, saying he was going to freeze to death out here if he wasn't careful. Rick knew he was barely listening and had been too busy soaking up every single bit of warmth that Daryl was exuding from his bigger body. The older man huffed out a laugh in his ear and began to nibble on his neck while Rick tried to dissuade him though they both knew he was barely trying to fight the other man off, was much too comfortable. When Daryl pulled back Rick was not even embarrassed at the whine he let loose from loss of contact. Daryl had told him to hold his horses and to be patient but Rick hardly knew the meaning of the word when Daryl was concerned. 

 

Pulling Rick's hand towards him, Daryl placed a tiny package in his hand. Rick had been confused but he'd opened the package anyway only to find snowglobe in his hand. The smile on Rick's face had been like a breath of fresh air Daryl had said at the time. It wasn't a well known fact but Daryl Dixon was a very cheesy man and a die hard romantic at heart, when Rick had asked why Daryl had simply shrugged and said that some people were worth all of the romance and all of the love, if he could give it to the person who made him happy then he'd do it. If it came out a little bit more chickish than others thought possible....well no one else had to know.  
That night had been the first night Daryl had made love to Rick. 

 

Daryl had taken a mattress up to the guard tower while everyone had been eating dinner, had taken a few half used candles and some blankets up to their little love nest and made it into the most romantic place Rick had ever seen. Before everything had changed this would have been the most romantic thing a lover could do for another, but now that it was a literal dying world it was like heaven on earth. The next morning Rick had been sore and sticky and had not wanted to leave Daryl's arms, afraid to break the spell. But Daryl had told him not to worry and that he intended to bring Rick back to their place many times of course Rick couldn't say no to that so he'd left when he'd had to with Daryl by his side. 

 

 

 

Thinking back on such a time was the only reason Rick was still here, the only reason he'd beaten back the fever for so long. The gaping bite in Rick's upper arm was bleeding profusely but he barely noticed it anymore, hadn't noticed the Walker creeping up on his side until a chunk of his flesh had already been ripped from his arm. Daryl would never have let that happen, oh he'd be horrified at the state Rick had managed to land himself into. Rick had been able to lock himself into a feed  
store and barricade himself in while the end started. 

 

He reached into his pants pocket to pull out a small snowglobe in his hand. 

That snowglobe had really been his new beginning in all of this. It only made sense that it should be with him in his end as well right? 

With a smile on his face Rick raised his python to his temple, staring at the snowglobe, and pulled the trigger. 

 

 

A set of blue eyes opened up to stare a white ceiling, the smell of death, decay, bleach all wafting in his nose. He raised up in his bed to look around and saw a vase with wilted flowers at his side, but how was that possible? 

 

Rick Grimes was back. Back in that hospital room. 

 

What in the hell was going on here?


	2. Days Gone Bye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rick wakes up in the hospital after dying in the apocalypse and decides to make sure that he doesn't let that happen again.

Something was very, very wrong Rick decided as he looked around the familiar room. Careful of all the tubes and wires that no longer functioned but were still attached, the man maneuvered himself into sitting Indian style on the stale smelling hospital mattress. The man knew he'd either had one hell of a coma dream or he was honest to god back to day one of his whole apocalyptic journey, but which was it? The former Deputy looked to the side only to spot the familiar flower vase with all the wilted flowers in it, the one that the girls from dispatch had picked out for Grandma Jean's vase. He opened his mouth to call, out just for the hell of it, but he noticed his mouth felt like it was full of sand. Grimacing at the feel of his mouth, Rick gingerly untangled himself from the machines and waddled over to the bathroom to relieve himself and drink some water that was still cool and drinkable thankfully. 

 

The first time around, or his dream, whatever the hell it was, he'd just gulped the water in big gulps and had made himself almost sick since there wasn't anything else on his stomach at the time. Glancing up into the mirror Rick took in his features; blue eyes sunken in a bit, with purple bruises under his eyes, he looked like one of the undead since he'd been so malnourished for so long. And he'd just gone running out to fight the world like this?

 

"I'm a damn idiot." 

 

  
Well at least he tried to scold himself but what came out was more of a pathetic croak since his voice was so far gone. Now that he thought about, it how long had it been since he'd even used his voice? It felt like years to the man as he tried to clear his throat and drank some more water slowly to clear his airway a bit. When he was finished he walked back into the room and looked around to see what he could use for anything when something caught the man's eye. Rick hadn't really looked around before but there was a change of clothes next to the bed, some hospital pajamas basically and a pair of clean underwear. Maybe someone had set it there for when he woke up? He wasn't really sure but one thing he'd figured out real quick was to take his blessings where he could find them. Last time he'd basically been running around with his ass hanging out and he really didn't want a repeat of that, it hadn't really impressed Morgan or Duane when they'd gotten him cleaned up...

 

  
Morgan and Duane! 

 

  
Rick remembered finding his good friend after the loss of his son and it hadn't been pretty, Daryl never let him forget about the scar on his chest from Morgan. His heart gave a painful tug at the thought of his other half. Things would be different this time and he would make sure of it...but those choices might cost him the best thing he'd ever had. Rick knew that since he had knowledge of at least what could come to pass he couldn't leave Merle chained to that roof, he couldn't drop that bag of guns in the city, he couldn't let the group stop on that highway. Things had just gone downhill so fast...

 

  
With a shake of his head Rick decided to take it one step at a time. The first thing he had to do was sponge off to get the damn smell off of him and change clothes. Looking at the dark shower stall with complete skepticism Rick slowly turned the squeaky knobs until some semblance of a water stream came out of the shower head, first step down. Hospitals normally kept buckets in rooms in case of emergencies; Rick bent down and was shocked to hear his knees didn't crack like they did before. 

 

  
'Probably because I'm not as old yet,' he couldn't help but torment himself with that. 

 

  
The bucket was beneath the sink as was a pack of sponges with some bland store brand package of soap. While the bucket was being filled with soapy water Rick reached around and untied the string that was holding his gown apart and walked out, buck ass nude, to grab the change of clothes. He gave a chuckle as he realized that the him the first time around would have been horrified at the blatant lack of modesty but now, after spending so much time with such low rations and so many years with those people everyone knew what the others looked like. Besides it’s not like anyone else was there to see him. 

 

 

 

The sponge bath had been nice as had the clean water but he needed food and a lot of supplies. Rick always hit himself for missing such a gold mine opportunity with the supplies here. There were so many walkers and bodies that people would just rather not risk it but once you got inside you were fine but they didn't know that. The first thing to do was grab a weapon because as nice as those guns had been just for making it seem like they were safe, the people hadn't found many opportunities to use them without calling all the walkers for miles down on them. 

 

  
The hallways were just as empty and bloody as they'd been the first time, completely riddled with bullet holes. His first stop had to either be the floor nurse's station or the janitorial closet because he knew he'd need to go down those stairs and there were no lights. The fact that he'd only taken matches into a pitch black several floor stair case and come out alive still amazed Rick to this day, that there was no Walker in there was pure dumb luck. The station had been pure chaos with papers thrown everywhere and all signs of organization down the drain but he'd managed to snag one small flashlight from the very back of the drawer. 

Light, check.

 

  
Now for food, medicine, and all the supplies he could carry, along with an ambulance key. He knew he would never be able to carry all of the supplies that he intended to take with him and that an ambulance would draw unwanted attention but he needed a bigger vehicle till he got to the truck in the city. The truck he’d used had been a life saver since it had given them parts for the RV to last a little longer but still, it was better to have all this supplies than to have a few car parts that they could easily salvage from all the stray cars they would find. A pang ran through Rick’s heart at the thought of the RV and its old owner, Dale had been like the grandfather to the group, old and wise and so ready to defend anyone who would need someone on their side. The man wasn’t built for this world, too kind, too human, but that didn’t mean that Rick was going to let him get torn open like before, no one should go out that way. Growls drew his attention towards the familiar set of doors with the two phrases 

‘DON’T OPEN DEAD INSIDE’

The first time he’d read those words in the abandoned hospital he hadn’t understood what they’d meant, thought maybe there were dead bodies inside but then the hand had reached for him and he’d had nightmares for days. Now though? Now he just wanted to get rid of them so they would shut the hell up and let him work in peace, the Deputy hadn’t stuck around last time so he had no clue if that wooden board that was holding the door closed would actually hold them all banging up against the door. Rick had seen the power behind those bodies, had seen them rip people open like they were paper and he really didn’t want a herd to sneak up on him, especially since he was the only source of food in the entire building for those guys. 

Of course in a hospital there aren’t too many weapons to choose from, not conventional ones anyway. Sure you’ve got all kinds of chemicals, surgical tools, even an oxygen tank to bash someone’s head in if you’re desperate but those things don’t really work on a group of undead Walkers so Rick was kind of stuck in square one and he knew it. What he wouldn’t give to just take out his python and shoot up the already screwed over hospital but he wasn’t exactly in possession of his trusty weapon at the moment so that wouldn’t do him any good. The Deputy gave a curse under his breath and started to look for anything to use as his weapon of choice in the situation. 

An idea hit the man and he started to run towards the fire cases in the hallway. He knew it was a long shot but if maybe someone had left the axe in the glass then he had a chance, at the beginning things hadn’t been quite so brutal because supplies hadn’t become as scarce as in the end. At the very end of the hallway was another set of double doors, all the doors thrown open and bullet holes riddling the rooms but behind the last door was the metal bar of a glass case and Rick just sent up a prayer that he was right. He pushed the door back and in front of him hung a smashed in case, the axe missing. 

“Fuck!’ Rick snarled and punched the wall next to the shattered case. What was he supposed to do now? The Deputy doubted a scalpel could hold up against however many Walkers were locked in that room unless he went one by one and he just didn’t see how that would be an option unless he went in there and politely asked the Walkers to come out one by one so he could stab them in the head. Yeah, that just wasn’t gonna cut it. 

The banging on the door behind him got louder and louder, they were pushing against the door and it sounded like there were a good number of them locked in that cafeteria. The snarling was still going on and they knew Rick was out here but he didn’t know what to do. If he opened that door then he would just be welcoming his own demise and that wasn’t in the plans for the near future but he couldn’t just pretend that he didn’t know they were here. Chills ran up his spine when he heard a small splintering sound like when you step on an old board and hear it bend under your weight, not breaking but just one step closer. 

And that board was pretty fucking close to shattering. 

Acting on pure instinct Rick crouched down behind one of the doors that opened out and pulled it back to the corner to create a little niche in the wall. If he looked up he could just see what was going out by the window but at the same time if something really looked through the window they would be able to see him there, also there was the fact that those damn things were strong and if they ripped that door up Rick would be dead meat instantaneously. He continued to crouch and think of the next plan of action while still keeping his ears open; there hadn’t been anymore splintering noises but the banging was still going on. His only choice was to take them out but he just didn’t know how he could do that without a weapon. Sure he could lure some and smash their heads in the doors or with chairs, IV racks, trays, those types of things but there was certainly more than one or two that were coming for him and those odds weren’t good for him. 

God he wished Daryl was here. 

Rick bit his bottom lip to restrain the whimper trying to come out at the thought of his beloved archer. His heart constricted and Rick would swear that it stopped beating for a moment, his hands flew up to grip at his chest. Rick missed his blue eyed archer something fierce, with every fiber of his being he wished that he could look to his side and see those stormy blue eyes looking back at him with that look he always gave Rick when he needed to let him know that he was with him. He knew that he would see him soon but they would be starting all over, this Daryl wouldn’t be the one who held him at night or would kiss him senseless, this Daryl would be the one who kept trying to separate himself from the group. The one who would fly off the handle because he was alone, his brother was gone and wasn’t that a kick to the nuts. Rick knew that he couldn’t let Merle lose his hand or leave him up on that roof even if he was asking for it because when Daryl found out he didn’t think he’d escape a bolt to the eye this time. 

But what would that do to them? Without Merle Daryl had developed into the person he had wanted to be, the good and kind man who wasn’t in his brother’s shadow. Rick had seen his partner become a true and genuine human being with a heart of gold even after the death of his brother and while he always told Rick that he didn’t blame him for what happened Rick had always blamed himself for causing Daryl that pain. If he’d brought him back then maybe Daryl would never have had to kill his only kin, would never have had to sink a knife into a corpse wearing his brother’s face staring back up at him trying to rip his throat out. Then again there was always the chance that Merle would have taken Daryl away from him and that was something that just wasn’t going to happen this time. Never again. When he found Merle he would make sure that he knew who was in charge and if he had a problem with that then he could leave but Daryl was staying. 

When Rick listened again for the splintering wood the sound he heard sent chills up his spine; silence. What was going on? Where were the walkers? Had they given up? Rick peeked up above the window to make sure that he was alone and that the walkers hadn’t gotten out and he just wasn’t hearing them but the hallway was still clear as far as he could see so what was going on? Taking his chances the man kept low but moved out from behind the door and into one of the rooms just trying to take a look around for anything he could use. The room smelled horrible and he looked up to the bed to see what had once been a young girl with a bullet hole through her head but the sight didn’t faze him anymore. Personal items were scattered amongst the room like the people who were visiting had been in a hurry to get out which they probably had. In the corner was a pink hand bag with its content spilling out onto the floor and Rick just had to make sure he didn’t pass anything up. 

He moved quickly and quietly over to the bag but remained low, he knelt down and looked to see what he would find in the bag and found the usual items; a tube of half used lipstick, a compact, a check book, a few stray dollars and some change, random papers, mints, but nothing Rick would be able to use. He growled and dropped the bag to try and make it over to the next room when the purse hit the ground and made a strange noise. With a slight frown the Deputy looked back at the item on the floor, when it had hit the ground it had almost sounded like something solid had hit the floor but there was nothing like that in the purse. He knelt back down and emptied the purse as quietly as he could when he let out a hiss of success, there was a hidden zipper pocket. He hastily unzipped the pouch and saw that inside was a box cutter. 

Rick had never understood women and their hand bags but he was sure as shit thankful that they all seemed to carry the weirdest crap in their bags because this lady probably just saved his life. The cutter was stuffed into his pocket and he grabbed the empty, plastic box that was next to the bed so he could stuff some of the medicine and supplies into it. The banging had started again and Rick was delighted to hear it, it meant that the walkers hadn’t escaped while he was zoned out. The next step of his plan was to stuff as much as he could into the box and pray that he could find an ambulance possibly or something that had gas that he could use to get all he could out. There had been a map at the nurse station and Rick knew that would tell him where to go and what the best way to get there would be. 

 

Rick had been digging around for the map he’d seen for what felt like ages but he knew it had really only been a few minutes. It didn’t help that he’d scattered all the papers as he’d gone looking for his light so he had no idea where it had flown off too. The walkers were getting restless with him so close and that board was not going to hold up too much longer but if he wasn’t careful he could end up cornered with a herd and only a box cutter, not favorable odds. 

He was just checking the last drawer again for the third time when he heard something behind him. Rick whirled around, box cutter in hand, when he came face to face with a familiar face. It had been years since he’d seen the man and even then he wasn’t close to him, in fact he’d only seen him once, but he knew he was a good man. He hadn’t changed much even had on the same black button up shirt with white stripes and the same chain around his neck with the same expression of ‘piss me off and I’ll feed you to my dogs’. 

“Ease up on the cutter white boy.” 

 

It was a lot more difficult than Rick imagined, pretending that you didn’t already know someone who didn’t have a clue who you were but he had somehow managed to do it. Guillermo had been the custodian at the nursing home before hand and apparently still was but he’d been sent over to pick up a patient to take back to Atlanta when the shooting had started. Rick didn’t know exactly how to react to the change in events and didn’t have a clue what else would change but he prayed that things would keep relatively close so that he at least at some clue of what was to come. 

After the whole ‘I mean you no harm’ routine Rick had explained his plan to the custodian. At first the man had been hesitant to agree with him till he finally asked Rick what he’d done before all of this, Rick had told him he had been a Sheriff’s Deputy and that seemed to satisfy the man enough to agree to help him. They’d been talking through the basics when the door had been given the hardest push yet that left the hinges squealing with the force, Rick knew they were running out of time and quickly. Guillermo had told him that he’d brought the van and parked it in the garage below them, it wasn’t as big as some trucks but it would hold a good number of supplies and things that they would need plus it still had gas so unless it had been taken during the evacuation they should have a way out. That made Rick stop.

“Why are ya still here if they evacuated weeks ago?”

Guillermo had looked down at his feet and shuffled for a moment clearly lost in his thoughts before he finally looked Rick in the eye, “The patient was my grandmother, I tried to keep her alive as long as I could while keeping the geeks out but…I lost her two days ago.”

Rick gave the other a small nod but didn’t offer up any condolences, those had long since lost meaning to him and the people he’d been with. He cleared his throat and nodded towards the doors, “We should try ta gather as much as we can. Those doors won’t hold too much more.”  
Guillermo agreed and they both started to go into the rooms to gather what they could. Surprisingly there was still a good amount of medicine and still some clothes like he was wearing, he knew they weren’t much but any clothes would be appreciated soon. Rick could feel the other man watching him but he continued to ignore it so he could gather up the items in front of him. He expected the other to question him but he never did, simply got back to gathering his own things. The hospital had 4 floors which didn’t sound like a lot but with its width and the fact that they were having to go up and down stairs to stop things off at the bus it got quite tiring very soon. 

The sun had since disappeared and the hospital seemed even eerier with the fluorescent lights on full blare in the blood spattered and deserted halls. Soon the only place that they hadn’t gotten to was the cafeteria where all the walkers were and that was a problem. Food would become one of the main things people would need in the coming months so he couldn’t leave without even trying to get into the cafeteria. 

“Don’t even think about.”

Rick looked over to see Guillermo giving him a glare, “Don’t think about what?” 

“Tryin’ to break into that cafeteria, that is suicide man. I didn’t help your white ass get all those supplies down there only to die because you couldn’t accept a victory as it is.” 

Rick gave a groan, “We’re gonna need food, ya know we will Guillermo.” 

Said man gave a frustrated sigh and rested his elbow on his knee with his arm hanging down from where he sat leaning against the wall, “First thing, just call me G, man. I don’t like being called by my full name. Two, yes we will need food but not bad enough to take on a whole thing of geeks. We don’t even know how many are in there and I’m not going to risk it. Plus in your condition you can’t exactly take them all on by yourself. You said you just woke up from a coma a few days ago maybe? I was hard pressed to let you do all that lifting but I figured you’d stop if you couldn’t handle it. I’m drawing the line here.”

Rick looked at Guillermo, G he reminded himself, and just let his head drop. He knew the man was right and he should just take what he can get but still, there could be a gold mine in there and he was passing it up just because he was a little exhausted. He’d done worse.  
“Now I’m gonna ask you something that has been bothering me for hours man.” 

Rick gave a grunt as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes to wait for the question, “What is it?”

“Why did you grab tampons and pads? Is there something I’m not seeing?” 

Rick just gave the other a wide eyed stare for a moment before throwing his head back and laughing so hard there were tears streaming down his face, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so hard.


End file.
